Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Hey there!The last time I wrote on here my dad was pretty sick and I’m happy to say
that he’s doing great. I went for a run with him a few weeks ago and I was
breathing too hard to sustain a conversation, which actually made me really frustrated. Maybe I’m extremely unfit or maybe he’s a superhero. Let's go with the
superhero thing, plus we were at altitude which totally makes it harder.

I spent most of December in Arizona at a training camp. It was a great opportunity to escape the cold and do some exercising in the sunshine. Joel has set up a fantastic group of athletes and it was neat to be living with all of them for 3 weeks. I have so much to learn from their wealth of experience. I left Arizona feeling a little more fit, a little more healthy, and ready for Christmas in the mountains. Canmore is the best little winter town and makes me the happiest of all places.

After a good few weeks at home I’m back in the swing of
things in Florida, where I’ll be living for the next few months. The
hardest part about training right now is I feel like I’m never going to be as
fast as I used to be. The last time I raced fast was almost 20 months ago which is a really freaking long time. But, it’s not long enough to forget what
winning feels like. It’s the most satisfying, exciting, indescribable feeling
in the world. I want to do it again and that's what keeps me going.
It’s also taking me a while to re-discover the fun of training hard. When I was
winning races, training was really enjoyable. Did I race well because I was
having fun, or was training fun because I was racing well? Probably a bit of both. It’ll take a lot of hard work to
win another race, and it definitely won’t happen if I don’t find some enjoyment
in the process. I can’t really force myself to have fun, but I’ve put myself in
the best possible situation to let it happen. Great coach, inspiring people and a sweet place to train. Happy 2013 everyone!